2002-08-15 04:00:00 PDT Sacramento -- Growers who want Gov. Gray Davis to veto a bill to expand the rights of farm laborers have showered him with campaign contributions, while the United Farm Workers union has organized a 150-mile march up the Central Valley.

Exercising political pressure in very different ways, growers and workers both hope to sway the governor, who must decide whether to sign legislation that the UFW calls the most important agricultural reform since Cesar Chavez's successful 1975 effort to allow farmworkers to unionize.

Starting today, workers and their supporters will march through hot Valley towns to the state Capitol just like Chavez first did in 1966. Meanwhile, agricultural interests have given the governor more than $105,000 in the past eight days.

"That's amazing. Obviously, the agriculture industry believes this is the way to get the governor's attention. The question for the UFW is, how much is a march worth? Is it worth $100,000?" said Bob Stern, president of the Los Angeles-based Center for Governmental Studies, which studies campaign financing.

Promising daily fasts and celebrity supporters, the UFW plans to retrace the steps Chavez took on his first march to Sacramento. The route, which will take 10 days, begins in Merced and will wind through farm towns and cities like Modesto and Stockton.

They want Davis to sign SB1736, a bill by Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, D-San Francisco, that would impose binding arbitration on stalled contract talks between farmers and unionized farmworkers.

BURTON HOLDING BILL

The bill cleared the Legislature last week, but Burton has not sent it to the governor's desk yet, in part because he wants Davis to see how much support the farmworkers can muster for it, he said. Davis has 12 days to act on the bill once he gets it.

Growers hate the measure. They say it will cause financial havoc for farms with tight budgets.

The bill is a substantial political test for centrist Davis, who has managed to appease both labor and agriculture during much of his first term. The governor has not indicated which way he will go, but a spokesman said "he will do what is best for the state's economy."

Labor insiders fear that means Davis is preparing a veto.

They also note that they're up against a generous giving-spree by agriculture. Since an Aug. 7 fund-raiser for Davis put on by the agriculture industry, growers have given the governor $105,500, according to records available from the secretary of state. That's on top of the $1.5 million agriculture interests had previously given Davis over the years.

Agriculture interests say they're not trying to buy a veto.

"I'm asking the governor to veto it based on the facts," said Manuel Cunha Jr., a Fresno County farmer and president of the Nisei Farmers League. Cunha gave the governor $1,000 last week.

Cunha and other growers argue that the measure will further erode employer- employee relations and that stalled contract talks are as much the union's fault as the farmers'.

Burton and UFW officials say the bill is needed because workers on more than 240 California ranches have voted for union representation but have not been awarded a contract -- years after unionizing. About 75 percent of farmworkers earn less than $10,000 a year, UFW President Arturo Rodriguez noted.

Davis officials deny there is any correlation between contributions and policy decisions.

And several of the recent contributions are from rice-growing groups, which have mechanized harvest procedures and therefore hire few farmworkers that would benefit from the bill.

Still, Davis' opponent in the November election, Bill Simon, blasted the contributions, arguing that they are an example of the "pay to play" atmosphere at the Capitol that the governor's prodigious fund-raising has brought about. Davis has raised more than $56 million during his first term.

Simon, who is against the measure, has also received large contributions from agriculture interests.

IMPLICATIONS FOR ELECTION

Whatever Davis does with the bill could have election implications, noted political scientist Barbara O'Connor, a Sacramento State University professor. The UFW carries clout with Latino voters, an important electorate. Agriculture interests could help determine who wins the Central Valley, a crucial region.

With political determinations, publicity-minded marches and campaign contributions swirling around the measure, what gets lost is its merits, noted Stern of the Center for Governmental Studies.

"Both sides have legitimate arguments (about the bill)," he said. "I wish those arguments were the discussion."